docs: def load_json(filename, to='auto'):
      '''
      load_json(filename) yields the object represented by the json file or stream object filename.
      
      The optional argument to may be set to None to indicate that the JSON data should be returned
      verbatim rather than parsed by neuropythy's denormalize system.
      '''
      from neuropythy.util import denormalize as denorm
      if pimms.is_str(filename):
          try:
              with gzip.open(filename, 'rt') as fl: dat = json.load(fl)
          except Exception:
              with open(filename, 'rt') as fl: dat = json.load(fl)
      else:
          dat = json.load(filename)
          filename = '<stream>'
      if to is None: return dat
      elif to == 'auto': return denorm(dat)
      else: raise ValueError('unrecognized to option: %s' % to)